Serendipity
by Twiggy Morrison
Summary: She waiting for an apology, for him to promise he'll clean up his act. But he doesn't because he hasn't so he won't.
1. Burnt Coffee

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_Di__sclaimer: I own none of these characters, with exceptions to the animals...names. I took a bit of creative license on this story, but don't worry it's still the same harvest moon you know and love, it's just a little mashed up. I'll update this (if my computer lets me) and don't worry M&M fans. That'll get an update as soon as the site will let me.(No literally it's not letting me update.)_**_

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Serendipity

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_Chapter One: Burnt Coffee_

"Go to hell Kasey." He stares at the woman in front of him, taken slightly aback by the abruptness of her tone. Her caramel colored hair has that disheveled, slept in look that he likes so much. Kasey's head is pounding though, whether it's his reward from his late night of heavy drinking last night or from waking up to the smell of burnt coffee and his fiancee yelling at him he can't really tell. All he knows is that one moment they're trying to get through breakfast; all it took was one little comment he made, and now they're here. "I just don't _get _you, haven't I've done everything I can to make you happy?"

He knows this argument by heart, went through it several times already and he has to admit that after a while it gets a little redundant.

"Of course you have." He mutters, even over the coffee machine he can hear her grit her teeth against one another. Kasey stands up, sick from the coffee smell and abruptly turns the machine off before sitting back down. A small part of him thinks that the fight is over, but he knows better. She hasn't started yelling yet.

"Then why were you spending all last night talking to _her _again."

"Who?" Kasey asks, his voice calm even though every bit of him is scrambiling to remember what happened last night. He woke up this morning in his own bed, with his fiancee, which really should count as something.

"Alice," The blue eyed girl say the exasperated edge finally coming out in her voice, "Alice." Kasey felt his eyes widen. Alice? As in prematurely gray haired, green eyed, snobby, rich bitch Alice? That one?

"Are you sure?" He asks hesitantly, the look she gives him is answer enough. "Katie..."

The petite caramel haired woman shakes her head. She looks young, too young to be in college; and most certainly too small being a whole head and a half shorter then Kasey. He's brought both subjects up to her before, several times as a matter of fact, while they were dating. She would always laugh and tell him that if he wanted someone taller there were always men. And when he would ask to see her I.D she would smile quietly; smugly, and hand it over. He remembered that he always triple checked just to be sure.

Those had been the good days, and if that look in her eyes is anything to go by, their days are numbered.

"I'm tired Kasey." She says quietly, fidgeting slightly with the black hem of her dress. Kasey stares down at his hands; counting each individual knuckle; every uneven line. Katie takes a small breath and waits for him to look up. "Kasey, did you hear me?" Kasey nods slowly and it takes awhile, but he finally lifts his head.

"Maybe we should go back to bed." He says softly, too softly. He's sounding like a walking door mat right now and he knows it, but he'll do anything to keep her there right now. Anything. Katie shakes her head and straightens up in her seat. Defiant, a rebel with no real cause.

"I'm leaving." _'Leaving because I'm sick and I'm tired of being engaged to a man for four years. Sick and tired of having to clean up after you. Sick and tired of picking up the pieces.' _Katie doesn't say this because she know that he can see it, it's spray painted all over her face. She knows he sees it every time he looks into a mirror. Know's that he's to stubborn to believe it. "My bags are packed. I'm going to my Grandpa's place...he's sick you know." She tries to look past the hurt in his eyes _(Or maybe...Or maybe that's her hurt in his eyes...) _"The taxi is already out on the drive."

Kasey doesn't say anything, just stares down at his plate if half eaten eggs that she cooked for him. He looks up as Katie's chair scrapes against the cheap linoleum. Hears her heels click slowly against it as she goes to the three pink and black bags by the door.

"Do you want me to hel-"

"No." She replies thickly. He can tell she's fighting back tears and he wants so badly to reach out and touch her, hold her. But he doesn't. She grabs her bags and steps out the door. They both walk out of the small studio apartment, down the slender spiral staircase. Katie's steps are quick and even. So quick that Kasey almost has to struggle to keep pace with her. He doesn't know what he's doing. Doesn't have a single clue even as Katie slips into the car, but for a moment her name slips out his mouth. The doors still open and he knows it's his chance. He knows that she's waiting for him to apologize. For him to promise to stop drinking. For him to announce that he's done sleeping around, that he'll clean up his act and get serious.

But he doesn't, because he can't, so he wont.

The cab's door shuts with a thud of finality as the little flicker of hope melts out of both their eyes, Kasey waits until the cab is gone before he turns and walks, alone and defeated, back up the steps.

When he gets back into his house, he goes into the kitchen and turns the coffee pot on.

* * *

Hamilton sat at his desk, papers scattered every which way all over the glossy surface. He massaged his thinning scalp and flipped through the towns reports.

Horn Ranch; in the red. Marimba; in the red.

All the money this town thrived on and it was gone. His town was in debt and he knew it. Hamilton even put an ad in the paper. Gill watched his father worriedly from his spot beside the door. All they could do know was pray.

At six o' clock in the morning, Hamilton's prayers were answered.

The phone rang and Hamilton reached for it, paused his hand recoiling slightly as if the receiver would jump up and bite him; then steeling himself answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey...uh, hi." The voice cracked and for a minute he thought it was Bo, being pushed into doing another prank call for Luke's entertainment, and then Hamilton remembered that Luke never got up before ten. "I'm calling about the ranch?"


	2. Pancakes and Shacks

_Chapter 2: Pancakes and Shacks_

"I don't think I need to tell you that this is a bad idea." Kasey looked at his sister as he folded one of his pale gray t-shirts. She looked over at him from her position in the kitchen, she had a white bowl perched on her hip and her face was covered in pancake batter. "I mean, it is nice that you're doing something for a change but...well, don't you think this is just the littlest bit impulsive?" Kasey shrugged and placed his t-shirt into the large duffle bag at his feet.

"Isn't impulsive my middle name?" Angela shook her head and placed the bowl onto the kitchen counter taking out a whisk and stirring the beige mixture. The radio was on, as it always was whenever his sister came over.

"I thought it was Meriwether." She replied as she poured the batter onto one of the rust covered pans that were on Kasey's stove. The brunet man scowled at his younger sibling and stood up from his spot on the couch. "All kidding aside. Don't you think Mom and Dad will be just a_ little _miffed at the fact that you went and bought a _farm_. I mean what happened to being a lawyer or a gynecologist?" Angela crinkled her nose, "Never mind I remember how that didn't work out, but Kasey a _farm_? Besides whatever happened to...uhm..." She trailed off and Kasey sighed from his spot by the counter, out of all four of his siblings Angela was above and beyond his favorite. _(Not that he'd ever let her know that.)_ But being his favorite did _not _grant her an all access pass to his personal life.

"I already told you. She left." Angela watched the pancake bubble for a moment before she turned to her brother. She opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it and snapped her mouth shut. "_What_ Angela?"

"Nothing, nothing. God Kas, who pissed in your cheerios this morning?" She slipped the finished pancake onto a plate and handed it to her older brother. He stared at her back when she returned to her stove, stabbing at his pancake with his fork. She fidgeted for a moment before she turned back to him, "I mean can't you just work things out with her? You know, you've done it before and we were all very fond of her." The words came out in a flood and it took Kasey a moment or two to figure out what the brunette woman had said, when he did his scowl deepened.

"No."

"B-but...Why the hell not?" Angela exclaimed, the spatula in her hand dangerously close to coming down on his knuckles. Cautiously, he moved his hand away.

"What am I supposed to say Angie, huh? 'Oh hey Kate, I know you said you were living for good_ again _but if you come back I'll change I promise'." Kasey's voice went flat and he lifted up a forkful of pancake, studying it sullenly, refusing to meet Angela's eyes. "I've said it dozens of times before and yes, most of the time she believed it." He lifted the fork to his mouth and paused, "I just don't think its going to work this time."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Uhm, the fact that I've already tried it." _'In fact_,' Kasey thought as he swallowed his bite of pancake, _'She ought to have twenty-eight messages on her phone supporting that fact.' _Angela groaned, her shoulders slumping just slightly.

"This is a terrible idea." Angela muttered as she leaned back against the kitchen counter.

"You said you wouldn't say that."

"I thought you would change your mind when I brought Katie up." Kasey shrugged and sawed off another piece of pancake.

"I don't know why you're so worried, Jack was able to do it." Kasey replied as he stood up from his seat and walked back into the tiny living room to continue his packing.

"But that's Jack." Angela said softly as she followed behind him, plopping down on the tiny stretch of couch that wasn't covered in clothes. "None of us want you to be Jack...Well Mom and Dad might but, the rest of us? We don't. And I know Kevin and Molly will vouche for me...Alright Kevin will, but none of us really cared about Molly anyway." She sighed and shouldered against her brother, a small frown pulled at her otherwise cheerful face. "You might have been a bad kid and a really shoddy brother but...we'd still rather have you then Jack." There was a long pause as Angela watched her older brother pack his bags, letting her words sink into his thick skin.

"This conversation is making my mind numb." Kasey said as he zipped up his duffle bag. Angela fidgeted in her spot and moved away a bit as he stood back up.

"Do you know whose picking you up?" Kasey shrugged and shouldered his bag.

"Someone from the Town I guess." He mumbled as Angela rose, he stood on his spot. Unmoving as the brunette woman busied herself with straightening the front of his shirt. When she finally stopped and took a step back Kasey felt full of some odd, brotherly affection he had never felt before. He grabbed the petite woman in his arms and pulled her to him in an awkward, albeit affectionate hug. "I'm gonna miss you kid." Angela stiffened, unused to being on the receiving end of the second oldest man's attention. Kasey lifted a hand and ruffled up her hair before letting her go; an action she had only received once before when she had fallen out of a tree and Kasey had been the only one of her siblings to stay with her. Sure he had told her to suck it up and "be a real man" but he had made her feel better none the less. She looked at her older brother and gave him a small watery smile.

"I'll miss you too Kasey." Angela whispered she watched Kasey walk out the door and called out after him, "And don't come back until you're actually in love with someone this time." Her smile turned genuine as Kasey tilted his head back and laughed.

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Kasey could say he's done a lot of things in his lifetime. But riding in the back of an ancient wooden cart that smelled like a too toxic mixture of chicken feathers and horse manure wasn't one of those things. He lay stretched out in the straw, head leaned back on his duffle bags, hands tucked neatly behind his head as he tried, in vain, to patiently answer all the questions that the cart driver asked him.

The wheels hit a bump on the road and Kasey jumped up swearing under his breath as the cart driver looked over at him. "Don't like bumps City Boy?"

"I told you five times already, my name is Kasey."

"Ain't that a girl name?"

"It's unisex." Kasey grumbled, mentally swearing yet again at how screwed over he got in the name department.

"Well, my names' Cain; like Cain and Abel. Only I wont kill you." The broad shouldered cab driver paused, "Unless of course, you're Abel. Get it? Abel?" The man broke into a loud roaring laugh that made the horse give a frightened start. Kasey only sighed as he sunk further into the straw, placing a hand over his face, inwardly hoping that not everyone in the town was this...eccentric.

It was pitch black when the cart finally stopped it's journey. Kasey leaped out of the straw covered bed, yanked his duffle bag out and looked around.

"Where's the house." The brown eyed man asked as Cain stepped down from the cart. The old man looked at Kasey then pointed at the shabby, paint peeled house. Its roof half finished and walls termite ridden and worn.

"'S right there Kasey." Cain said and the brunet boy's shoulders fell in disappointment.

"That looks nothing like the picture." Cain shrugged and went back to his cart. Kasey's eyes were fixed onto the house, all that hope for a new life, a new start seemed to vanish. Cain cleared his throat and Kasey jumped and looked back at the older man.

"Well Mr. Kasey, it was awful nice havin' your company today."

"Yeah...sure." Kasey replied his voice hollow.

"The Mayor told me to let you know that he'd be by tomorrow."

"Yeah," Kasey repeated, same hollow town, same tired look on his face.

"You have a good night now." The brunet turned to look at him again, as a thick, bitter, bubble of replies started to grow inside his throat (Take me back, please take me back, I don't want this, take me back), but he swallowed the protests down and gave Cain a weak smile.

"Yeah Cain, you too." He turned back around and set off towards his new house, and; if he didn't kill himself, his new life.


End file.
